AMD PowerTune
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Design firm | Advanced Micro Devices |
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Introduced | December 2011 |
Type | Dynamic frequency scaling |
AMD PowerTune is a trademark for a series of dynamic frequency scaling technologies built into some AMD GPUs and APUs that allow the clock speed of the processor to be dynamically changed (to different P-states) by software. This allows the processor to meet the instantaneous performance needs of the operation being performed, while minimizing power draw, heat generation and noise. AMD PowerTune aims to solve thermal design power and performance constraints.[1]
Besides the reduced energy consumption, AMD PowerTune helps to lower the noise levels created by the cooling in desktop computers, and extends battery life in mobile devices. AMD PowerTune is the successor to AMD PowerPlay.[2]
Support for "PowerPlay" was added to the Linux kernel driver "amdgpu" on November, 11 2015.[3]
As a lecture from CCC in 2014 nicely shows, AMD's x86-64 SMU firmware is executed on some LatticeMico32 and PowerTune was modeled using Matlab.[4] This is similar to Nvidia's PDAEMON, the RTOS responsible for power on their GPUs.[5]
Contents
Overview
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AMD PowerTune was introduced in the TeraScale 3 (VLIW4) with Radeon HD 6900 in Dec 15, 2010 and has been available in different development stages on Radeon- and AMD FirePro-branded products ever since.
Over the years, reviews which document the development of AMD PowerTune have been published by AnandTech.[6][7][8][9]
An additional technology named AMD ZeroCore Power has been available since the Radeon HD 7000 Series, implementing the Graphics Core Next microarchitecture.
The pointlessness of a fixed clock frequency was accredited in January 2014 by SemiAccurate.[10]
Operating system support
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AMD Catalyst is available for Microsoft Windows and Linux and supports AMD PowerTune since version.[which?]
The free and open-source "Radeon" graphics device driver has some support for AMD PowerTune, see "Enduro".[11]
Feature overview for AMD APUs
Brand | Llano | Trinity | Richland | Kaveri | Carrizo | Bristol Ridge | Raven Ridge | Desna, Ontario, Zacate |
Kabini, Temash |
Beema, Mullins |
Carrizo-L | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Platform | Desktop, Mobile | Desktop, Mobile | Mobile, Desktop | Desktop, Mobile | Ultra-mobile | |||||||
Released | Aug 2011 | Oct 2012 | Jun 2013 | Jan 2014 | Jun 2015 | Jun 2016 | Mar 2017 | Jan 2011 | May 2013 | Q2 2014 | May 2015 | |
Fab. (nm) | GlobalFoundries 32 SOI | 28 | 14 | TSMC 40 | 28 | |||||||
Die size (mm2) | 228 | 246 | 245 | 244.62 | TBA | TBA | 75 (+ 28 FCH) | ~107 | TBA | |||
Socket | FM1, FS1 | FM2, FS1+, FP2 | FM2+, FP3 | FP4, FM2+ | AM4, FP4 | AM4 | FT1 | AM1, FT3 | FT3b | FP4 | ||
CPU architecture | AMD 10h | Piledriver | Steamroller | Excavator | Zen | Bobcat | Jaguar | Puma | Puma+[12] | |||
Memory support | DDR3-1866 DDR3-1600 DDR3-1333 |
DDR3-2133 DDR3-1866 DDR3-1600 DDR3-1333 |
DDR4-2400 DDR4-2133 DDR4-1866 DDR4-1600 |
DDR3L-1333 DDR3L-1066 |
DDR3L-1866 DDR3L-1600 DDR3L-1333 DDR3L-1066 |
DDR3L-1866 DDR3L-1600 DDR3L-1333 |
||||||
3D engine[lower-alpha 1] | TeraScale 2 (VLIW5) |
TeraScale 3 (VLIW4) |
GCN 1.1 (Mantle, HSA) |
GCN 1.2 (Mantle, HSA) |
GCN 1.3 (Mantle, HSA) |
TeraScale 2 (VLIW5) |
GCN 1.1 | |||||
Up to 400:20:8 | Up to 384:24:6 | Up to 512:32:8 | Up to 768:48:12 | 80:8:4 | 128:8:4 | |||||||
IOMMUv1 | IOMMUv2 | IOMMUv1[13] | TBA | |||||||||
Unified Video Decoder | UVD 3 | UVD 4.2 | UVD 6 | TBA | UVD 3 | UVD 4 | UVD 4.2 | UVD 6 | ||||
Video Coding Engine | N/A | VCE 1.0 | VCE 2.0 | VCE 3.1 | TBA | N/A | VCE 2.0 | VCE 3.1 | ||||
GPU power saving | PowerPlay | PowerTune | N/A | Enduro | ||||||||
Max. displays[lower-alpha 2] | 2–3 | 2–4 | 2–4 | 3 | 4 | TBA | 2 | TBA | ||||
TrueAudio | N/A | ✔[15] | N/A[13] | |||||||||
FreeSync | N/A | ✔ | N/A | |||||||||
/drm/radeon [16][17][11] |
✔ | N/A | ✔ | |||||||||
/drm/amd/amdgpu [18] |
N/A | Experimental | ✔ | N/A | Experimental |
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Feature overview for AMD graphics cards
R100 | R200 | R300 | R400 | R500 | R600 | RV670 | R700 | Evergreen | Northern Islands | Southern Islands | Sea Islands |
Volcanic Islands | Arctic Islands/Polaris |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Released | Apr 2000 | Aug 2001 | Oct 2002 | May 2004 | Oct 2005 | May 2006 | Nov 2007 | Jun 2008 | Sep 2009 | Oct 2010 | Jan 2012 | Sep 2013 | Jun 2015 | 2016-Q2/Q3 |
Instruction set | not publicly known | TeraScale instruction set | GCN instruction set | |||||||||||
Microarchitecture | TeraScale 1 (VLIW5) | TeraScale 2 (VLIW5) | TeraScale 3 (VLIW4) | GCN 1.0 | GCN 1.1 | GCN 1.2 | Polaris | |||||||
Microarchitecture type | Fixed pipeline | Unified shader model | ||||||||||||
Direct3D | 7.0 | 8.1 | 9.0 | 9.0b | 9.0c | 10.0 | 10.1 | 11.0 | 12.0 | 12.1 | ||||
Shader Model | 1.1 | 1.4 | 2.0+ | 2.b | 3.0 | 4.0 | 4.1 | 5.0 | ||||||
OpenGL | 1.3 | 2.0 | 3.3 | 4.4 | 4.5 | |||||||||
Vulkan | N/A | 1.0 | ||||||||||||
OpenCL | N/A | 1.1 | 1.2 | 2.0 | ||||||||||
Power saving | ? | PowerPlay | PowerTune | PowerTune & ZeroCore Power | TBA | |||||||||
Unified Video Decoder | N/A | Avivo/UVD | UVD+ | UVD 2 | UVD 2.2 | UVD 3 | UVD 4 | UVD 4.2 | UVD 5.0 or 6.0 | TBA | ||||
Video Coding Engine | N/A | VCE 1.0 | VCE 2.0 | VCE 3.0 | TBA | |||||||||
TrueAudio | N/A | ✔ | TBA | |||||||||||
FreeSync | N/A | ✔ | TBA | |||||||||||
Max. displays1 | 1–2 | 2 | 2–6 | TBA | ||||||||||
Max. resolution | ? | 2–6x 2560×1600 | 2–6x 4096×2160 @ 60 Hz | TBA | ||||||||||
/drm/radeon |
✔ | N/A | ||||||||||||
/drm/amd/amdgpu |
N/A | WIP[19] | experimental | ✔ | TBA |
- 1 More displays may be supported with native DisplayPort connections, or splitting the maximum resolution between multiple monitors with active converters.
See also
- AMD Cool'n'Quiet (for desktop CPUs)
- AMD PowerNow! (for laptop CPUs)
- AMD Turbo Core (for CPUs)
- Dynamic frequency scaling
- Intel SpeedStep (for CPUs)
- Intel Turbo Boost (for CPUs)
References
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External links
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